Emperor penguins risk extinction due to melting sea ice | USA TODAY

Emperor penguins in Antarctica are at risk of "quasi-extinction" due to melting ice.

Now climate change is coming for the penguins.

Due to the dramatic loss of sea ice, several colonies of emperor penguins in Antarctica face "quasi-extinction" in the decades to come, a study released Thursday reports.

"This paper dramatically reveals the connection between sea ice loss and ecosystem annihilation," said Jeremy Wilkinson, a sea ice physicist at the British Antarctic Survey. "Climate change is melting sea ice at an alarming rate."

The study found that emperor penguin colonies saw unprecedented and "catastrophic" breeding failure in a part of Antarctica where there was total sea ice loss in 2022. The discovery supports predictions that over 90% of emperor penguin colonies will be "quasi-extinct" by the end of the century, based on current global warming trends.